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Topic: Small steps |
Allan Haley
From:
British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 13 Apr 2017 9:12 am |
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The past six months I haven't been playing pedal steel with other people, but I've been practicing at home. Mostly, I've been working a couple of Newman courses. My practice routine is to warm up harmonized scales in a few different positions (pedals up, pedals down, lowered Es with A pedal). Then I'll practice a new lick or phrase. Such tremendous resources online- I particularly like steelpicking's youtube channel. I try to get an hour in, always with a metronome.
Last night, I played out with a little country band in town. I have to say, the practice pays off. With all of the melody work from practice, I find I can use the pedals much more freely to add melodic licks in between the vocals.
The harmonized scale practice has helped me to make smooth transitions between chords.
Nothing fancy, but it sounds ok.
The most important thing is timing and phrasing. Now that my mechanics are a lot smoother than they were, I can think about playing with some feeling. |
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Larry Jamieson
From:
Walton, NY USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2017 4:50 pm
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| Sounds like you are making good progress. As a part of your practice routine, try putting on a record (CD) and play along. Move your bar up or down the neck picking strings 4 and 8 to find out what key you are in. Listen to the steel fills or licks and see if you can figure out how to play them. This will train you to stay in time with a band and to hear chord changes coming, and maybe you can learn some good fills. Keep on making music and have fun! |
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Allan Haley
From:
British Columbia, Canada
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Posted 14 Apr 2017 7:17 am
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| Good advice. I don't do enough of that- playing along. I've found it has taken me this long (three years) to even have a chance at picking licks off of records. It's such a complex instrument- I needed a lot of direct instruction to get up and playing. The more detailed and explicit the better- trying to avoid those bad habits that creep in. Luckily the forum community has been tremendous. |
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